Council Tax Reduction for carers
You may be able to get a Council Tax Reduction if you are on a low income. To apply for this, you would need to contact your local district or borough council’s benefits department.
Carers assessment
As a carer you are entitled to a carer's assessment from social care services. An assessment is a conversation with a skilled practitioner to find out more about how your caring responsibilities affect you. Supporting someone may cause feelings which may affect your health and wellbeing such as feeling tired, frustrated, exhausted, sad or being ill. You may have other feelings too. The conversation should explore what help you may need to support you in your role as a carer. It is a chance for you to discuss how your caring responsibilities affect you to help to work out if there are also other options available to you from social care and / or our partners in health, community and voluntary organisations.
This information will be stored securely, and you have the right to see the information we hold about you at any time.
As part of the assessment conversation, we may need to contact other people who are involved with you (such as your GP or other organisations that you are already involved with) as this could help us to understand your circumstances better. There also may be some people who we need to share your information with, within our organisation and our partner organisations to allow us to support you in the future.
The Care Act 2014 says that Suffolk County Council must check your Nationality or Immigration status as part of the Carer’s (eligibility) assessment. This means we will need to take copies of certain documents from you (such as a birth certificate or passport). These will be safely stored in our computer system. The person doing your assessment will be able to tell you more about this.
The assessment will work out if you are able to get support from us to help you with your caring duties.
You can find more information on our carers assessment page.
Carer’s personal budgets and direct payments
Your Carer’s assessment will help identify if you have any eligible needs which will be put in writing in a support plan. The support plan sets out what you require to meet your own needs as a carer. This might include financial support such as a direct payment.
A direct payment is a sum of money that can be used to help you pay for things which have been agreed in your support plan.
A direct payment is not means-tested, or taxed, and does not affect any benefits that you might be getting from the DWP. Examples of the types of things a direct payment may be used for includes:
- Paying for support to help with practical needs e.g. gardening, cleaning
- Education and training
- Activities to improve or promote your own health and wellbeing.
The payment is usually made as a one-off annual payment into your bank or building society account.
More financial support for carers
To find out what other financial support may be available, you can visit:
Help for unpaid carers who are employed
As an unpaid carer, you have additional rights at work.
Many websites offer advice on combining work or study with your caring role. These cover information on your rights at work, flexible working, support at work, and returning to work or study.
You can visit the following websites for more information:
